This invention relates to the production of refractory material used for catalysts and catalyst supports.
Refractory materials are conventionally used as catalysts and catalyst supports. Such materials, however, suffer the disadvantage of producing fines when the catalyst is subjected to normal handling operations. The fines present several problems in that they complicate the activation procedures, feed erratically to the reactor, and result in the production of polymer fines when the catalyst is used in polymerization. This problem is particularly acute in supports used for olefin polymerization catalysts which generally cannot be subjected to treatments involving the use of water to reduce fines. The invention is of particular applicability for aluminum phosphate supports for olefin polymerization catalysts which demonstrate exceptional polymerization activity but do suffer from the disadvantage of producing fines during handling due to inherent weakness of the particles.